


Human clad Monsters sidestory Flashback

by vampirekiki



Series: Human clad Monsters [2]
Category: Angelo (Band), D'espairsRay, Jrock
Genre: Alternate Universe - Supernatural Elements, M/M, Mystery, Paranormal, Yaoi
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-08-07
Updated: 2016-07-10
Packaged: 2018-04-13 10:25:28
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 6,618
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4518276
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/vampirekiki/pseuds/vampirekiki
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>He looked like just someone you would pass on the street without glancing back once. There was nothing about him which could draw unwanted attention. You would not be able to tell from this man's appearance that there was something <i>different</i> about him. That he was a nocturnal creature, that he fed on mortals in order to survive.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

  * For [kusakanmuri](https://archiveofourown.org/gifts?recipient=kusakanmuri).



Human-clad Monsters

sidestory: Flashback

Chapter 1

With his hands shoved into his coat's pockets, his feet led him forward with certain steps, Takeo was moving in the same manner as a beast of prey would be circling its territory. Tonight he was on his own, stalking the nearby area quietly, his sharpened senses allowing him to be more aware of his surrounding, helping him to differ friends from enemies, reconnoitering hidden threats.    

As a bridge spread before him, the man walked toward it in a calm natural manner, his pace steady and unhurried. However, once he reached the midpoint of the bridge, Takeo took a moment to pause and look down at the river below. Due to the dim lighting there wasn't much to see of the murky surface of the river. Still Takeo was aware that he was standing over the same river which he knew Giru had recently slid one of his victims into its dark waves. 

Giru's consuming and disposing of his victims and the careless ways he had chosen to deal with his... _personal needs_ didn't really bother Takeo like it did Kohta. If Giru chose not to let himself be bound by discipline as others were, then he would have to face the circumstance, one way or the other, it did not really have to be his concern, and he would choose to not get involved as long as he could.

Takeo had learnt the hard lesson of survival, therefore he knew quite certainly that discipline and self control did play a part in ensuring survival. 

The man quietly walked forward, leaving the narrow river behind him without glancing back, though the sound of the slowly flowing river traced after him for a long time. He could not deny that the sight of the river still brought something else back to his memory. Though Takeo was not used to frequently recalling his past, the sound of the river brought back those fading memories.  

He was born in a quiet riverside village. His family owned a few pieces of land that could be rented out to other farmers. As a result the family was quite well off comparing with the other villagers. His father had high hopes for him, the first born son of the family, with a few siblings tagging behind him. Being a firstborn meant he needed to set an example and bring glory to the family's good name. Since young age he was urged to study hard, learn how to read and write, while other poorer children his age, were put into farmland to work from daybreak till dusk.

Back in those days the life was hard in the villages as most of the children were expected to be put to work as soon as they were old enough to walk and carry things around steadily. It was so different from this comfortable, cozy 'modern' life, when fully grown younglings were left to roam around aimlessly, doing whatever they pleased, getting things from their parents without being charged.

Sometimes Takeo did not understand how and why things had changed into this. This modern world, most of the things in it were alien to him, though he had already walked upon this world for an unmemorable long time.

When he was considered of age, his parents made an arrangement for him to marry a girl from a nearby village, so he could start his own family and take up responsibility just as everyone else expected of him. 

Even up to the wedding day he barely knew his bride to be and neither did she. But in his time, young people were wedded in order to unit two families, not for affection or personal wish. Romance was something they only came to know about from texts, folktales or plays, it didn't have a role in their daily life.  
   
Though as a simple minded and unworldly young man as he was, Takeo had nothing to complain. He had his chance to study and be cultured, he had a healthy, hard working wife caring for him,  his work was less than most of the other peoples’, his family had a solid roof over their heads, they always had food on the table, they even had a handful of precious and valuable possessions to themselves.  A life like this was much better than many others would ever dare to hope for. 

Back in those uneventful, simple days, Takeo was always certain of how his life would be like in the future. The picture had already been spread before him: he could foresee that he would work side by side with his father, then take the position as the head of the family when his father became too old and feeble, he and his wife would have children of their own, if his wife survived those childbirths then she would raise their children till they came of age. Eventually they would both grow old when it was time to pass down what they possessed to their children. 

It was their way of life, the same way for Takeo's own father, and his father before him. Nothing more, nothing less.

But this stable, expected way of life had come to a rapid end when he was attacked in the mountains, while being on his way to another village just beyond the hills.

Takeo could no longer recall what had caused him to make this trip through the mountains.  Perhaps he was requested to travel on his father's behalf, tending to some business or land deal, but he could not remember any details about the reason why he had to leave home in the chilly, early spring season.

The thing that was forever seared into his memory was the night when their travelling group was attacked. At first, he thought it was some starving wild beast coming out early for a prey and attacking their camp, but the lone figure that shifted among shades, encircling their camp, was too disturbingly human-like, moving too fast with too much _intelligence_ beyond its movements to be a mere animal.

For a brief moment the wild tales he had heard concerning the evils that stalked the night flashed through Takeo's panicked mind. They were called ghosts, mountain spirits or mountain demons. His fellow villagers were whispering weird stories about those fearsome beings which were preying upon men when the group sat around the campfire, but he had never thought those myths might be real and that he would fall prey to those creatures.

One by one his fellow travel companions were struck down before him. After what Takeo saw that had become of his companions: broken limbs and torsos being tossed across the half melted snow after they were being consumed, he tried to escape. But the shady figure chased after him, the coldness in the air made his limbs go numb, branches of wild growths cut into his flesh as he ran between them, the muddy, uneven earth beneath his feet didn't seem willing to let him go. Eventually he had nowhere to run and the dark figure leaped at him in hunger and fiery rage, gripping him between its claws, with bloodied mouth widened open, moving right in for the kill.

Instantly he could feel how those sharp teeth sank into his neck, breaking skin and tearing into his flesh effortlessly. Drinking into his welling blood flow greedily.

With this horrible beast feasting on him and him being too weak to fight back, Takeo would have lost his life like the other fallen travelers if he hadn't committed the unthinkable at the verge of death.

He would later reason his action as the result of his survival instinct kicking in. In his wounded, animalistic state, he did the only thing he could. He bite back down on the cold, slippery flesh which was the closest to his mouth.

Chew, bite, tear, suck, swallow. His every action mirrored his attacker's. He remembered forcing his own weakened limbs to cling onto the beast instead of fighting it off, his mouth fastening upon whatever flesh he could reach, tearing open whatever flesh, tissue or veins he could sink his teeth into, aiming to rip open his throat.

It was a desperate attempt. The dark creature's foul smelling rotten blood rushed down into his throat during the struggle, but he only opened his mouth wider and swallowed the liquid by one large mouthful after another, swallowing it down with the chewed raw flesh he had managed to bite into. His entire being being reduced to a primate, animalistic state, his consciousness narrowed down to this endless circle of sucking and chewing, of destroying and devouring the monster which had tried to steal his life and eat him alive. 

Eventually, his action was the only thing that saved him.

When he opened his eyes again the sky was still dark, he couldn't tell if he had been out of consciousness for a few hours or a whole day. He did not even know how he managed to crawl away from the touch of sunlight after daybreak, but his new formed survival instinct must have kicked in for when he regained consciousness - he was lying in the depth of a dark cave, within the even deeper part of the mountain. He had no memory of why he was alive, nor what had become of the half man, half beast creature which attacked him - the attack now seemed almost like a far too vivid nightmare. Still he was aware of himself being covered in bloody filth when he woke up, the strong smell of dried blood making him sick. But his attacker, or whatever left that was the remaining part of it, was nowhere to be found. 

He lived on by feeding on small animals he could find from within or near the cave he had been hiding in, doing so until he slowly recovered enough to make the trip down the mountain - for the longest of time he did not pause to wonder why he now seemed to be able to catch those warm blooded animals without failing, why the raw meat and the springing blood tasted so good in his mouth. At first he was glad to be alive with all his limbs still intact but his relief was short lived. Once he realized that sunlight actually burnt his flesh and he had also plagued by an unstoppable hunger for human's blood whenever he got too close to villages and residences of hunters or woodcutters, the greed for the taste of it clung tightly to his guts, finally he knew that he was doomed.  

He could not go back to the village, go back to his family after what the beast had done to him, for now - he had already become a beast himself.

to be continued.


	2. Human clad Monsters sidestory Flashback chapter II

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *sorry everyone, this chapter is not yet beta-ed!*

Human-clad Monsters

sidestory: Flashback

Chapter 2

 

Oni.

Half human, half beast hideous beings with wild hair,  fearsome fangs and claws, wearing human skulls and animal's hide around their torsos, impossibly strong and fast,  who resided in mountains and wasteland, their hideousness unseen by most living souls saved for a few unfortunates who ran into those creatures and in turn met their own untimely demise.  

Demons.

Feared and detested by the village folks, demons had to be destroyed upon discovered. It was for the safety of the mass, for demons were known cannibals, creatures of abnormality and unholiness, demonic, less than human. These were the facts about Oni which Takeo had always been told. Now, it also was exactly what he had become.

The price of cheating death was to be changed into something inhuman, the situation had left him with no possible way to return to his home village. Although Takeo felt he was still his own self, he didn't lose his past memory, he could still think in the same way he had always been thinking when he was just a village young man. But how would the others see him once they knew what had happened to him up in the mountain when none of his fellow travelers managed to return home, leaving him the only survivor. Would they really believe him to be innocent when he told them what had truly happened? Or instead, would they chose to think _he_ had murdered the other travelers? 

What would the villagers did once they realized he now fed on blood, his wounds could be healed faster than logically possible, his body became remarkably strong to the point of inhuman? Would the villagers--even his own family, believed him to still be one of them, the young man they had known for their entire life?

The chance of him being welcomed back was too slim, whilst the risk of being rejected or worse, killed, was far too real.

After escaping from the mountain, Takeo spent most of the time hiding in the wild, avoiding villages and towns, avoided being seen by others at all cost. He only went near villages by the hillsides to steal clothes and food. 

By 'food' he was referring to livestock and small animals, which could serve to satisfy his hunger when normal human food would not do the job. 

Once, he wandered back to somewhere near his old village. It was near midnight, he stood at the riverbank, gazing at his home village across the river, wanting nothing more than to go back and see his family. His feet carried him to find a spot where the water was shallow enough for him to cross the river, and he found himself standing in front of the village's gate. The entire village was fast asleep, no light had drifted through any of the house. Back then he would have to carry a lantern in order to see anything in such complete darkness, but now he was not even surprised when he noticed he could still managed to make out most of the details of every single house which laid in front of his vision, he could even sense every living creatures behind the wooden walls and locked doors.  

He could smell his fellow villagers who were hidden from his view by the thin walls of their own households, could sense them one by one as if they were standing right before him. Men, women, old-folks and children alike. He could hear their heartbeat so loud in his ears. The rushing sound of warm, fresh blood pulsing through their bodies, right beneath their clad skin...

He tried to focus his thoughts on his family, on his wife, on how much he treasured them, but as he went further into the village, the smell of human’s flesh and blood had become _so much_ , it didn’t take long for the bloodlust to overwhelm him.

What happened next was a blur to Takeo, he recalled reaching his family’s house, he also remembered someone opening the door...then the next thing he knew, he was standing next to the hearth, faced by the lifeless, blood stained bodies of his aged parents and one of his younger brothers, all three of them were spreading across the bare floor, their unseeing eyes wide open in horror, their throats savagely ripped open. 

He stared at the lifeless forms before him, for a moment he could not understand what was going on, until he looked down at his own hands and his clothes and realized in great shock that they all were covered with fresh, thick blood. 

Next he sensed that his wife was also in the room, she had been curling to the far concern of the room, trying to hide herself. The moment she caught him looking at her, her tear stained face twisted into a mask of horror as she backed away from him, she nearly fell to the ground as she made a desperate run for her life. It was the last time Takeo had ever seen her.

What Takeo had failed to realize at this moment, was that he himself was also wounded, the shape tip of his younger brother’s sickle had been buried deep into his left shoulder---previously his brother had tried to protect himself with the sickle, but failed.  Blood was still seeping from the edge of the wounds as he watched his wife ran away. He did not feel the pain caused by his injure, for he was lamed by the shock. But at the back of his mind, a voice was telling him, _urging_ him to run, for it was only a matter of time before the other villagers arrived and discovered what he had done, and they would never forgive him nor allow him to live.

That night, Takeo ran away from his homeland and did not look back.

After that he went back into hiding, barely surviving by the animals he had managed to steal or catch, but it was not the same like _living_. His old life was stolen and he could see nothing in his existence and his future. In self pity and desperation, he even thought about attacking villagers and feeding from them---he knew he was capable to do so after testing his own strength and realized his strength had been greatly increased--taking down a lone villager or a woodman when they were alone would not be a problem, but he did not put his thoughts into action due to lack of motivation and more importantly... _fear_. For he felt like once he took this final step, he would truly become a demon and lost himself. After what he had been through, Takeo was afraid of becoming the same like the unknown creature that attacked him: a true monster.

But his life in hiding could not last long. Soon enough the villagers in the local region became aware of the disappearing of their livestock--too many of them had been attacked and drained. One by one they found the leftover broken limbs which were torn off seemingly by bare hands, they suspected something demonic was beyond those disappearance. In response, they hired experienced hunters from the mountain region and set up a trap.

The mountains were both sacred and fearsome to the residents of the farming villages, so many precious resources came from the mountains: clear water, food, firewood, hides, herbs; but at the same time it was also a dangerous, forbidden realm shrouded in great mysteries and unknown. If the threat came from the mountains, then the villagers would pick up those who were also from the mountains to deal with the threat.  
   
Eventually Takeo was captured by those hunters when he tried once again to steal the livestock, at first his captors were barely even able to decide whether he was a wild animal, a monster or some half-human spawn between demon and mortal. The villagers who had paid for his capture, refused to have anything to do with him--not even to execute due to fear of the bad luck it might bring, so Takeo was left to the mercy of the hunters.

He fully expected to be executed but he soon learnt there could be worse fate than death.

Soon as his rare healing powers being discovered, his captors brought him to the town, in turn he was eventually sold to a much larger, crowded city--a place Takeo would learn much later as Edo, the then capital of the entire country.

His new master in Edo had chosen to put him into a freak show for display. The master had done business in the city for so long that he knew its people's interest thoroughly  He knew the town folks were unlike the simple villagers, the rich town folks wanted entertainment in their spare time, they wanted to be delighted as much as they wanted to be thrilled. Their strange obsession with the macabre and obscenity knew barely any limit, for their satisfaction, freak shows of all kind sprang throughout the city.

In that place, Takeo was treated as a captured Oni--a demon, an rare subject for display, an animal which was smart enough to understand and follow orders but not enough to be respected as a person. Soon Takeo's new master realized he needed blood to survive, then the captive man was treated with half rotten animal's blood, pig's blood or chicken's and the like once a day---which was far from enough to satisfy Takeo's hunger, but his starvation served as a tool which could be used against him, keeping him weak and obedient.

The young man now lived in order to both amuse and terrify the audience. And the curious town folks did come rushing in to gaze at such a rare creature once the news about this captured, unkillable monster was spread.

For unmemorable long period of time, he was a star attraction of the freak show, though on the other hand he was also just a mere caged animal, he was dragged to the display circle and then cut open in front of the audience on a daily basis, left to bleed and then healed right in front of the half amused, half disgusted crowd.

These people called him unnatural, monsters, demon spawn, evil; but he noticed how his audience always watched on with ill-disguised delight and excitement when he fed on small animals and sometime, humans. In secret, homeless wanders, outcasts and criminals were brought before him for feeding, all for the audience's shameless amusement.

to be continued.


	3. Chapter 3

Human clad Monsters sidestory: Flashback

chapter 3

Why did Takeo not choose to kill himself in those hellish days? Although he knew he was very difficult to kill---even by his own hands. His body had become too strong, his wounds healed too fast for injury of any sort to become fatal to him. Still, despite of it, if he had tried hard enough then he might really have had found a way to end his own misery.

Fire and exposure to sunlight would have hurt him badly enough if he wanted a way out so desperately, for a number of times he had come so very close to giving up when pain and humiliation became far too great to bear. But in the end he kept dragging himself through those dark days, letting himself go through every single performance, receiving every single bit of shame and humiliation,  it was as though something deep inside him was still refusing the option of dying. It simply refused the option of dying _along side with_ him. It was something far too ancient, too cunning, too dark to a point that it would not give in to Takeo's pitiful cry for relief and mercy. 

Those hellish days went on for what felt like an eternity, until his chance of escape finally revealed itself, when the entire Edo city seemed to go up in flame.  

Being the most populated place and the central of political power and trade, Edo was an overcrowded city filled with shabby built wooden structures and narrow streets, making it easier for fire to spread from one district to another, especially during winter, when the weather was cold and dry, the frequent use of fire and the extra firewood meant bigger chance for disaster. 

Fire, the natural enemy of his kind, one of the few things which was powerful and devastating enough to destroy him. Ironic fire was what helped him to escape the living hell that was the freak show.

It was one of the greatest fire outbursts to ever engulf the city, very soon the fire had gone completely out of control, swallowing an entire district down after another. Chaos broke out everywhere, screaming rang through the night when people ran for their lives. In the middle of the chaos, Takeo managed to escape his cage out of sheer luck, he had to kill his owner and also those who tried to stop him when they caught him trying to escape. He was outnumbered, without any weapons, Takeo thought he would certainly die but with strength and cruelty he didn't imagine himself to possess, he killed his jailers and finally broke out from his prison. 

It was almost the same like how he had ended his parents and one of his younger brothers long ago, but this time he was fully aware of what he was doing, he had consciously committed murder. This time there could be no excuse.

In the middle of the inferno, Takeo had nowhere to go, he could only do his best to run away from the flame. It would be too big of an irony if he was to be burnt alive, after suffering and _surviving_ for so long. From this point onward, this young lost soul swore to himself, with everything which he once held sacred, that he refused to be a victim again. He would not be subjected to anyone else's misery, ever again.

He would do anything to stay alive, and stay free, in order to survive after escaping from the freak show. He would hide in the shadow, take whatever he needed, all in the name of survival.

Everything - just to keep himself from being reduced to a mere animal again.

However, it wasn't long before he once again returned to Edo, whilst the residents were still in the middle of the long progress of restoring their livelihood, struggling to get back on their feet. Takeo realized that the highly popularized cities were his sole sanctuaries. People might fear him, call him a monster or a demon - just like his audience did back in the freak show. But Takeo decided to be a monster who could blend right into the nameless crowd, he would do what he must do to pretend to be one of them. In order to blend in, he would need the protection which the massive, crowded city could offer.

In the rural region he would be more easily singled out and hunted down for simply being an unfamiliar face to the villagers. Hiding in the city region, he had a better chance to survive if he could manage to lose himself in the sea of people, who continued to roam the crowded city even after the devastating fire. Countless days seemed to blend together in a great blur to him after his escape. He spent most of his waking moment searching once again for food and shelter, he robbed and stole when he had to, he also needed to make sure that no one noticed his 'strange' behaviors or get suspicious.

When he could help it, he rarely killed. Despite being what people would call a demon, Takeo did not think he enjoyed mindless, purposeless killing. Leaving bodies behind at his wake would only inspire suspicion and panic. which might eventually force him out of his hiding. 

He could not staying in one place for too long though, not even in Edo. In order to escape from suspicion Takeo soon realized he must drift from one place to another often, if he wished to keep his secret. Cities or towns were always among his first choices. Although as he would later realize, there was no other more ideal hunting ground than Edo, the largest, most magnificent city of the time. No matter how far he had traveled, no matter for how long he had been away, he would eventually go back to this city. Everywhere he turned, he could see unsuspecting mortals nearby, who could be easily claimed and drained with no one ever noticed what had happened. 

Takeo bid his time, doing his best to stay out of sight as he moved across the city, he learnt to use various fake identities to hide his true nature: merchant, servant, seasonal worker, traveling actor, traveling priest or monk, shaman,craftsmen, drifter... There was hardly any role he hadn't played. When being questioned about his past and origin, Takeo learnt to tell different lies to different listeners, he told them vague but believable stories such as the tragic loss of livelihood or family’s farmland, of being in debt, to explain away why he ended up being a wanderer who needed to move from place to place so frequently. He would do everything, to tell all sort of lies to stay away from suspicion, for he couldn't afford to be captured once more.

Time passed by with him barely noticing the change of seasons and the flow of years. He lived on when the other people aged and eventually died and faded away. Until one day Takeo looked at himself in the bronze mirror, then reality finally dawned upon him. _Such long a time had passed but he did not seem to have aged a day._ The man finally realized he had been alive for far too long, so many years had already passed by, to a point that his wife, his remaining siblings--everyone who had once known him, _could no longer possibly be still alive_.

With this realization, Takeo knew he would be a loner, it seemed to be his unavoiding fate when people died around him as he alone remained untouched by time, while he lived on by feeding upon other people, stealing their blood and lifeforce.

As a creature who lived with an unnatural long life span, Takeo’s long life gave him the chance to see, to _experience_ things that no mortals would ever dream of witnessing. He roamed the earth through the time of wars, starvation, plagues and social unrest in between, but Takeo survived all these, war and diseases fail to harm him whilst the others dropped like flies around him in bad situations. And he still did not even seem to age a day. 

Life for the inhuman creatures was...strange, to say the least. The paths they traveled through the quite a strange journey. During his time living at the edge of the mundane world, Takeo had came to see the darkness which lingered near the land of the living. At some point, Takeo was worshiped as a living deity by small underground groups of fierce cultists, who offered themselves to him willingly. The other time, he was feared and shunned for being what he was: a freak, blood sucker, abnormality, unwholesome creature, monster. 

For more than a few times, the man woke up from a trancelike state only to find himself standing among lifeless, broken bodies of his victims, blood everywhere, seeping down his own chin, spilled all over the floor, smashed across walls and even ceiling; letting him know that he had lost control to his killing instinct.  But unlike the first time, when he stood over the broken bodies of his family; he was less bothered by what he had done, the feeling of shock, disbelief and guilt faded slowly away as time passed, like he was finally getting _used to_  what he had become and what he was capable of doing.

Takeo’s path began to cross with the other inhuman creatures, a few of them were of his own kind, but the others were _different_. Who would have guessed there were so many unwholesome creatures living within the unsuspecting mass. Unwholesome creatures they were, for all of them had broken at least one taboo that led them to _become_ what they were now. Be it accidental or intentional, once they crossed the line there was no going back.

Throughout the years, Takeo slowly became more aware of the existence of these other creatures, some of them wanted to harm him, some of them wanted him to stay away from them, some wanted to use him, some Takeo learned to avoid for safety measure,  some of them simply had no interest in him. It made no different. They were all deviants and outcasts of different sorts, some were fallen gods and spirits, fallen demi gods, the others life-stealers, deity-slayers, users of dark magic, cursed mortals, hybrids between mortals and beasts. Some of them were humanlike, some  were weaker than humans, whilst the others powerful beyond belief.  

Takeo's kind was drinker of blood, to be more particular they lived on mortals' lifeblood - animal’s blood might help them to survive, still blood of living, struggling mortals was more or less the only thing which could satisfy their horrible thirst. For the longest of time he tried to find the origin of the creature he had become, but all he had ever able to find was vague tales of superstitious, half truth and confusion. Blood drinkers went by with many names, they could be male or female, most of them looked outwardly human, but their bloodthirsty nature would forever set them apart with mortals. 

Among strangers, Takeo pretended to be a one of the mundane, but beneath this layer of pretending, he was friendless, always alone, with nowhere to belong. There was not a single person in the world who was tied to him, and he belonged to nowhere and to no one. Years went by, he had once thought that was how his life would be, unchanging, existing but never truly _alive_.

Having no interest in what was going on in the society when it did not concern his survival. The passing of time was noticed only when Takeo jolted into awareness by how greatly people’s appearances and conditions had been changed. Changes had arrived with what people now called modernization. Slowly, laws and social norms were changing, allowing people to choose their own way of life instead of binding them to one craft and one identity. The strange looking foreigners with blue or green colored eyes, different nationalities, different skin and hair colors were allowed to travel across their land, bringing with them new knowledge of the outside world, new inventions, new possibilities. 

What affected him the most was the introduction of modern inventions, the Edo he had once known so well was now going through a rapid transformation. Now the city was patrolled by organized police, the districts rebuilt and the streets lid with streetlamps - man-made light which drove out the shadow and the darkness of night more effectively than anything else he had ever seen. Making it more difficult and at the same time _easier_ to hide himself. Since due to the spreading of modern education and newly introduced ideas about science and what was rational and what was not, the mass was becoming less aware of creatures like him. Now people chose to believe demons simply did not exist, people even were taught and encouraged to think that way. As a result any mention about demons and anything supernatural in public would be viewed as foolishness and superstitious, at the back of their mind most people still feared the darkness and the unknown, but now those thoughts were suppressed, no one was supposed to take this fear seriously for it was being viewed as superstitious and weak. 

Still, on the other hands, mortals had remained unchanged in many aspects. Despite the increase of food supply, material comfort and wealth, mortals still fought among themselves in order to gain more possessions, at the expand of leaving the unfortunate ones starving and homeless. They killed, they raised wars among themselves, creating one self-made disaster after another throughout the process they learnt to call ‘history’. 

Through what they called ‘history’ was what Takeo would call ‘repeating the same mistakes’, again and again.

He had already lived too long, too worn to be curious about anything or anyone else by the time the dreams came to him.

These were dreams that made him gasp when he woke and sent a shiver down his spine every time he recalled it. Takeo could not recall when did the dreams start invading his sleep, his dreams were filled with moving shadows, and a pair of unseen eyes fixing upon him. In those dreams he always found himself in a strange scenery, where his surrounding was always bathed in an unnatural misty layer of crimson light,  where shadows were always shifting at the corners of his eyes. A dark, lifeless place where the sky was forever shrouded by black grey cloud, he knew he had never seen this place before during his waking hours.  

Before those dreams arrived, Takeo had long believed his ability to dream was dead ever since he was first attacked and transformed, but night after night after night he had similar dreams. And an unspeakable voice lingering in the air, calling out to him. As if it had something to tell him, as though it wanted to lead him somewhere. As though it was something of the utmost urgency and importance...the only problem was that Takeo could not understand what it was. What was he seeing? Why must he visit this strange landscape again and again in his sleep?

One night he stopped on a street and looked around, taking in the scene of huge skyscrapers made of steel and cement surrounding him instead of low, shabby houses made of wood. He was in one of the busiest districts within Tokyo, surrounding by men and women who wore Westernized modern clothes instead of the kimono or yukata, which he was so familiar with when he was still alive.  

The Edo he once known had also came a long way, it had evolved as a mega city and was renamed Tokyo.

Takeo himself had also transformed, after more than a century, he had already become an expert of forging fake identity and blending in with the crowd. He frequently changed his appearance, occupation and address, he changed his own names and identity in order to be enable to live in secrecy, unnoticed. Now he looked like any other citizen in the 21st century Japanese society. He dressed just like every other ordinary man, his face clean with a neutral expression to hide the truth about him, his hair was trimmed according to the latest fashion for men, and was dyed brown. He possessed the knowledge which fitted his image of a well educated man of the age, and his understanding of the world as it _really was_ , hidden deep beneath the facade. 

He looked like just someone you would pass on the street without glancing back once. There was nothing about him which could draw unwanted attention. You would not be able to tell from this man appearance that there was something _different_ about him. That he was a nocturnal creature, that he fed on mortals in order to survive. 

Beneath this facade of ordinary, laid an restless soul,  haunted by an impulse and needs he could not name, and unexplained dreams which seemed to be too ominous, grotesque and vivid to be overlook. It did not take long for fragments of these dreams to materialize in the waking world.

Takeo began to see pieces and fragments of his dark dreams lingered at the corners of his eyes. Phantom forms of moving shadows twisting at the street corner, flashing across the cold smooth surface of a glass window, shifting behind a half closed door. 

The shadows were calling out to him, as much as that mysterious which echoed at the back of his head. _Come_

He did not know it was the Blood Path reaching for him. 

Different kind of inhuman races had their own different paths to travel into the night.

And the dark creatures who lived on blood had a wet, thick trace of crimsonto lead the way toward their nightmarish world of shadow and madness. Takeo was of no exclusion. After more than a century of existence, despite not being fully willing, Takeo would soon finally follow the Blood Path, and eventually came face to face with the madness.

to be continued.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Takeo’s backstory reminds me of a film called _Black Sabbath_ (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Sabbath_(film)), which was directed by Italian director Mario Bava. There’s one story about vampires who murdered their love ones in one of the three sections: _"The Wurdulak"_ , which in turn is based on a novella _The Family of the Vourdalak_ by Aleksey Konstantinovich Tolstoy. I had only recently read _The Family of the Vourdalak_ , it’s a fine piece of Victorian vampire novella, hehehe. 
> 
> And the idea about freak show came from a Japanese shojo vampire manga “If You Wanna Break Out This World”, by Kaoru Fujiwara. (http://www.mangahere.com/manga/vampire_girl/)
> 
> I’m sorry that Takeo’s story goes on and on, I once want to summary his story the same way like I did with Giru’s backstory, but the whole things got so out of hand now I have so much to write down before we can get back to Karyu and Hizumi, sorry about that!


End file.
